How have humans caused the climate to change so far?
What have humans done to cause all the climate changes in the past 100 years?
What have humans done to cause all the climate changes in the past 100 years?
To see the overall effect you have to know something about heat physics. The sun, either at solar maximum or solar minimum puts out X amount of radiation along the entire radio spectrum. Most of the damaging radiation is absorbed by the atmosphere or by virtue of our magnetic poles it’s forced to pass around the earth and move off into outer space. If that wasn’t the case the earth would be something like a micro wave oven and we’d all be cooked. Most of the energy that reaches the earth’s surface is in the spectrum of visible light, some ultra violet and some infrared. The earth can only radiate infrared light, or what we call ‘heat energy’. Enter greenhouse gases: This is mostly CO2, methane and water vapor. The natural amount of CO2, methane and water vapor entering the atmosphere has been fairly steady for the last 10,000 years, or since the end of the last ice age…the point where humans began to create agriculturally based civilizations. From 10,000 years ago until the beginning of the Industrial Age in the early 1800s, CO2 levels went from 280ppm to 284ppm as per ice core samples. Between 1800 and today the CO2 level has reached 386ppm…that includes natural and manufactured CO2. Natural CO2 has remained fairly constant, but the man made CO2 has risen considerably. In fact it’s risen to the point where a good deal of the daytime infrared heat we accumulate can’t be entirely radiated out into outer space….that’s where the heating part of the equation comes from. Heat physics tells us that CO2 at 400ppm, plus or minus, is the point where rapid surface heating will take place. As CO2 levels rise at about 12 to 15ppm every decade you can see that we could have a serious problem in the near future. Bummer for us.
The same way Dragons have changed the price of peanut butter.
the extra green house gases in the atmosphere trap more head that would have usually been radiated back into space. it took an AS in physics to finally understand it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiative_forcing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_effect
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_dimming
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Climate_Change_Attribution.png
…
Humans have changed the climate in countless ways, most of which are bad for the environment. We human beings have helped cause global warming as a result of our machines and factories. Litterbugs have also thrown garbage on the streets, making a mess of our world. Many oil spills have severely hurt sea life, as a result of humans.
As you can clearly see, we are harming our world! We really need to start taking more care of our environment, or we’ll cause a mass extinction. Do you want to suffer the same fate as the dinosaurs? I didn’t think so. And that’s why we need to stop pollution, reduce, reuse, recycle, and do something good for the world, for a change!
They haven’t.
Nothing.
we didn’t cause all of it, only part of it.
it’s not too difficult to figure out. 100 years ago we started having factories pumping coal into the atmosphere, and we’ve never really stopped. now, CO2 levels are rising a little faster than they should be, leading to an increased greenhouse effect. it’s not a global emergency, and it was overhyped (back before al gore made it a political issue), but 90+% of scientists are pretty positive that we’re playing at least a minor part in it. what, are we supposed to believe that stripping the earth isn’t going to have ANY consequences?
i’m not even suggesting we do anything drastic, but political opposition to a scientific theory is just silly. people will say just about anything about global warming: it’s cold today, so global warming is a hoax; don’t believe al gore’s lies, it’s a hoax; i don’t have any proof, but i feel cool calling it a hoax… the only thing substantial that i’ve heard is that CO2 is a small part of the greenhouse effect. it’s a good observation, except that the greenhouse effect is a delicate system, and water vapor (another greenhouse gas) is also part of auto emission.
By Polluting
The climate? No.
Pollution and some man made disasters have caused some changes to some local areas, but man has not caused change to the Global climate.
repeating mistake after mistake
instead of doing something beneficial to the planet
They haven’t caused the climate to change in any significant way that can be demonstrated.
So far nothing at all.
-We don’t know if humans caused the climate to change or if it is due to natural causes. The earth has heated and cooled before. There were five Ice Ages before man was around so that warming and cooling was due to natural causes. You have hit the point of the debate, is climate change man made or natural. Unfortunately no one can give you a proven answer, all they can give you is their opinion.